Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1887-08-06
Marriages Between Cousins.
NOT NECESSARILY HARMFUL UNLESS cUNrfNtKD 70
SEVERAL GENERATIONS.


NOT NkcEssARfLY HARMFUL UNLESS cUNrfNuKD FoH
SEVERAL GENERATIONS.
Prof R.A Proctor in the Omaha Herald.
A curious example Of the tnischievous nature OF
intetmarriages within too limited an area n
afforded In the island OF sc. Rilda. There Is q
small and diminishing population. who, regarding
themselves as the salt Of the EARTH but are not 70
regarded by the rest OF the world. decline to honor
aliens with their alliance, or perhaps have no
choice not being chosen by aliens as suitable part
nerA Here, then, we have tpterbreeding such g
children q Adam and again among the descend:
ants OF Noah and those three ladies
who were good enough to accompany his
yet again the children Of Abraham, Isaac and
JACOB; Nothing Gould preserve the descendants OF
single pair, or even dozen pairs. from utter
degradation, and ere long extinction; ~ w0ulo
death Into the woPPd an END 70 s s our
AZ s. ka xss jag
iptermarriaSe has brought about such Q state OF
birth Of lock1aw, That the inhabitants Of St.
klida are semi idiotic is proved BY much that
known OF their ways and habits Perhaps the
navlng evidence SO clear that the practice Y
in}url9as may not unfairly be regarded as OF Itself
aMordns proof positive Of their low state Of mental
It may be asked how It Is that the royal family
o. hngland for example, escapes the nanfolo
a1 Il 9S Scs ana Tss Finnish
family has tolerablyr wide range OF German
cousins or cousins German, to choose FROM
though, being Itself almost full German blood
this OF itself does not indicate reason for eseap
those eHeetS are not altogether escaped George l
was pig headed bully, and George II only DIFF
Iered IN being rather more 80. George III was
never really sane and often insane. George Nv
was, as a man, profiigate, IS the annals OF even
royal scamps record. or William ~, the Greville
memoirs snow us enough To leave little doubt IN
any reasonable Inind that he was something be-
tween George III and George ".
WnaI the queen Is or has been future records
alone viii properly show: none OF those who
really know Would venture to say what they
really think. But 1t may be said, without any
improperly, that she has been subject ike George
III, to hts OF melancholy, which would be unrea-
sonable II they were not due to an inherited con-
StltutiOn.
or the queens children, for like reasons, little
can now be said; but we know that in one case
constitutional physical popularity showed some
thing seriously wreng la the race, as affected by
interpreting, and We may be well assured that In
FAMILIES where physical defects manifest them
selves mental and moral detects cannot be wholly
wanting, must, Indeed, ia particular members OF
sucA families, be present In very marked and
exceptional degree.
Judging from the records of the royal families OF
France, spain, Prussia, Austria and Russia tsOfne
one ls invited to correct me for not saying the i'm
perlal f1mi.leS in the last two cases. and the now
imperial Family OF Germany), there Is very marked
evidence In every One or tnein to show that close
Interviewing and crosS-breeding Is altogether
pernicious. Paul the mad, Catherine the lu.tiul,
treaerlck William the boor, and similar examples
snow that neither for the rich nor the powerful,
IOr tne peer OF the prince, no more than for the
poor Man, can the laws Which Nature has enjOtned
pe lightly dlsregarued. Among the families OF the
marked examples might be cited. We need 80 no
further than Bavaria.